Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 44240 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-01134

Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 15 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-00014 by Graeme Dey on 26 May 2021, whether ministers have now discussed the Island Communities Impact Assessment on Highlands and Islands Airports Limited’s (HIAL) Air Traffic Management 2030 Strategy with HIAL; if so, what the outcomes were, and, if not, for what reason the discussions have been delayed.

Question reference: S6W-00818

Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 15 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made with reviewing funding arrangements and specifically bursaries for student paramedics.

Question reference: S6W-01473

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-01476

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S6W-00919

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 21 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the research studies and clinical trials that have taken place in a number of countries to determine whether ivermectin could be used to treat COVID-19.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is the UK agency responsible for the approval of both clinical trials in the UK and of marketing authorisations (licences) for new medicinal products.

The MHRA is aware that ivermectin, administered orally, is being studied for safety and efficacy in numerous clinical trials worldwide. This includes an exploratory study being conducted within the UK: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04632706 . Potential new therapeutic approaches to COVID-19 are being tested through the UK-wide platform trials, including RECOVERY, PRINCIPLE and REMAP CAP. These trials are active in Scotland. The PRINCIPLE study is a UK-wide clinical trial led by the University of Oxford, evaluating potential treatments for COVID-19 including ivermectin.

The Scottish Government is closely monitoring all emerging evidence on the effectiveness of COVID-19 treatments and their clinical effectiveness in particular patient groups to ensure medicines with the greatest impact in treating COVID-19 are available for patients in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-00845

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had regarding introducing COVID-19 vaccines other than those that are currently in use, and with whom.

The Scottish Government stays up-to-date on all national and international developments regarding COVID-19, and are continuing discussions on a 4 Nations basis regarding development and possible use of new COVID-19 vaccines.

The approval of medicines is a reserved matter and all approval is managed by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

On 28 May, the MHRA approved the single-dose Janssen vaccine for use in the UK for adults aged 18 and over, and we anticipate receiving some stocks of the vaccine later this year. As with all new COVID-19 vaccines, we anticipate that the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) will provide a recommendation on how the Jansen vaccine should be deployed. The UK Vaccine Taskforce has secured 20M doses, of which Scotland will receive a proportionate share.

The Novavax vaccine is also reporting encouraging results from stage 3 clinical trials (90% efficacy in the US study). If the vaccine is successful in trials and the MHRA assesses it as appropriately safe and effective for use, the UK will be able to access 60 million doses and Scotland will receive a proportionate share. However the timetable for supply is not clear as the supplier requires to implement a significant increase in manufacturing capacity.

Question reference: S6W-00809

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 14 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to preserve and increase the stock of grey partridge.

Work to preserve and increase the stock of grey partridge has traditionally been led by shooting interests such as the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT).

GWCT lead on the PARTRIDGE project in the UK, supported by the EU via the Interreg North Sea Region programme. It show-cases how new and improved management solutions can improve biodiversity and ecosystem services at 10 demonstration sites across the region. There are two demonstration sites in Scotland at Balgonie Farm in Fife and Whitburgh Farms in East Lothian promoting land management techniques specifically to benefit grey partridge https://northsearegion.eu/partridge/ .

More widely, the protection of Scotland’s biodiversity is a key priority for the Scottish Government, and we are committed to doing more to safeguard our species and habitats. Our high level Statement of Intent on biodiversity, published in December 2020, signalled our ambitions for biodiversity in Scotland, and the development of a new post-2020 biodiversity strategy. We have committed £7 million to date to the Biodiversity Challenge Fund and recently launched a new £10 million Nature Restoration Fund to help finance projects that support nature recovery and address climate change. Action to restore biodiversity is also central to our Green Recovery from Covid-19.

Question reference: S6W-00788

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government by what date it will report on the outcome of the tender from Dr Veronikis to carry out mesh removal surgery.

Question reference: S6W-01130

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 14 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government for how long it has committed to funding the Self-Isolation Support Grant.

Question reference: S6W-01033

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 14 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many people died of infectious diseases in each of the last five years for which figures are available, broken down by disease.

The number of people who died of infectious diseases in each of the last five years are shown in the following table. These figures are available on the NRS website up to 2019. Data for 2020 will be published on 17 August 2021. This data can be accessed at: https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files//statistics/vital-events-ref-tables/2019/vital-events-19-ref-tabs-6.xlsx

ICD10 Summary list	Cause of death		2015	2016	2017	2018	2019


A00-B99	I. Certain infectious and parasitic diseases 1	M	340	343	299	333	332
A00-B99	I. Certain infectious and parasitic diseases 1	F	415	410	387	400	357
A15-19, B90	Tuberculosis	M	11	17	14	16	18
A15-19, B90	Tuberculosis	F	10	9	7	11	4
A39	Meningococcal infection	M	3	2	-	2	2
A39	Meningococcal infection	F	2	2	1	1	3
B15-19	Viral hepatitis	M	40	18	19	12	15
B15-19	Viral hepatitis	F	13	11	9	5	8
B20-24	Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease	M	10	19	6	9	12
B20-24	Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease	F	2	5	-	4	-